Index- heavy Lanka IOC and LOLC shares negatively impact stocks

By Hiran H.Senewiratne

The CSE started trading on a positive note yesterday but experienced a market decline for the second straight session, dragged down by index heavy shares, Lanka IOC and LOLC, stock market analysts said.

Some external environmental factors were not favourable to equity markets. The Russia-Ukraine war and social unrest due to economic recession, such as in France and UK, were some key factors.

Amid those developments both indices moved downwards. The All- Share Price Index went down by 109.6 points and S and P SL20 declined by 57.6 points. Turnover stood at Rs 1.8 billion with three crossings. Those crossings were reported in CIC Holdings, which crossed 700,000 shares to the tune of Rs. 73.9 million, its shares traded at Rs 106, Citizens Development Business Finance 250,000 shares crossed to the tune of Rs 50 million and its shares traded at Rs 200 and HNB 466,000 shares crossed to the tune of Rs 36.5 million, its shares fetched Rs 78.50.

In the retail market, top seven companies that mainly contributed to the turnover were, Agsta PLC Rs 383 million (20.2 million shares traded), CIC Holdings (non- voting) Rs 221 million (2.9 million shares traded), Lanka IOC Rs 140 million (612,000 shares traded), Expolanka Holdings Rs 122 million (756,000 shares traded), CIC Holdings (voting) Rs 95.9 million (927,000 shares traded), SLT Rs 67.7 million (995,000 shares traded) and ACL Cables Rs 52.4 million (547,000 shares traded).

The country needs to renegotiate its debt with bilateral creditors, such as China, Japan and India. The Paris Club creditor nations last month reached out to China and India seeking to coordinate closely on Sri Lanka’s debt talks, but is still awaiting a reply. These developments too tended to impact the share market.

Yesterday, the Central Bank- announced US dollar buying rate was Rs 360.35 and the selling rate Rs 370.86